MARSH
It ’ s not just about the benefits of course , and Kemmis Betty does highlight adapting to change as the biggest challenge when it comes to digital transformation .
He says the sheer volume of change and level of investment that Marsh is making across all these initiatives means colleagues require support to adapt to new processes and new ways of working at a time when the business is growing – plus of course managing all of that while also trying to serve clients and gauge the right pace of transformation .
“ The advice I would give to any client or organisation embarking on a digital transformation is really to stay laserfocused on the end-user experience ,” says Kemmis Betty . “ That ' s how the big tech firms have created really successful applications – that ruthless focus on the user experience that ' s difficult to do in a large organisation where you ' ve got many different stakeholders with different opinions . The way to do it is by adopting a truly agile approach .”
“ The thing I ' m hoping for most of all is increased diversification of talent within the insurance sector ,” says Kemmis Betty . “ I think if we ' re going to be successful as a business and as an industry overall in innovating and disrupting the traditional way of doing things and using new technology , that means that we ' ve got to attract and retain new talent that we haven ' t traditionally been able to do . I think if we achieve that it will go a long way to modernising the sector .”
“ There ' s no doubt that the insurance sector as a whole is a laggard when it comes to digital and we ' re playing catch up . When we started , we could see that some of our competitors were moving faster than us but now , with the investments that we ' ve made , particularly in new talent , we firmly believe that puts us ahead of the competition and really gets us on the right path of leading the insurance sector towards a more digital future .”
Disruptive insurance Many people would never believe they would hear the next sentence : it ’ s an exciting time to be working in insurance right now . That is obvious speaking with both Kemmis Betty and Fraser-Hawkins .
Previously there was a much clearer distinction between traditional tech suppliers who would provide platforms or services for the large incumbents and insurtechs who were digital attackers competing with those incumbents . Now that ' s evolving , particularly as many of the insurtechs have pivoted their business models to be more about partnership and collaboration with the incumbents – which opens up exciting areas of opportunity for large organisations like Marsh .